Candle In The Wind

Chapter Fifty Nine

There’s No Shame In Missing Each Other

“He still hasn’t come back home yet?”

Val asked as he poked his head in.

I dropped my head on the table. “No, but I’m seeing him today,”

I mumbled.

“How are you feeling?”

he asked as his footsteps got closer to my desk.

“Who cares?”

I groaned. “How is he feeling? That’s what I’m worried about.”

“Well…”

Val dragged out as he plopped down on the chair in front my desk, “chances are he’s really, really mad at you.”

I whipped my head up and sent him a long look.

He shrugged. “You lied, Juliette.”

I placed both hands on the side of my head. “I didn’t! Why does everyone keep saying that?!”

Val tilted his head to the side, “would you prefer the term you withheld a big chunk of information from him?”

His tongue kissed his teeth, “which is a lie by omission,” he whispered the last part.

I glared at him, just a second away from smacking some sense into him, “You’re no help.”

He slowly shook his head disappointedly. “If you told me this piece of information a whole lot sooner, I would’ve saved you from this predicament.”

I rolled my eyes, “sure.”

“You stopped talking to me. You stopped telling me things.”

Val frowned.

My eyes widened as my mouth dropped open. “I stopped talking to you?”

I snapped, “you never show up anymore, you’re rarely here, you’re always busy—”

“You know why I barely come here.”

“Why? You’re scared of Ava?”

“Yes!”

he nearly screamed, “she terrifies me!”

“She terrifies you because you like her, you big dumbass!”

His brows furrowed, “why are you yelling at me?!”

“Why are you yelling?!”

I yelled back.

I stood up and pouted. “Do you need a hug?”

Val’s face softened as he stood up and opened his arms, “I think you need it more than me.”

My brows furrowed as my lips quivered as I ran around the table and hugged him. Val hugged me tight.

“It’ll work out,”

he said as he ran his hand up and down behind my back.

I nodded as I thought of Callum, wondering what he could possibly be doing. Was he okay? How angry could he possibly be right now?

I was worried. He hadn’t been home for days. Ardley left anyway. It felt like what I did meant nothing at all, and I was suffering the consequences for no reason at all.

Look at what he’d done to me.

I could barely breathe or think or function knowing that he wasn’t doing well right now. And I wanted to give him the space—I really did but it was killing me.

“Juliette, we have a situation outside,”

Ava said in a panicky tone.

I followed her out, just to greet Amber in the middle of my shop with her hands fixed on her hips. She looked angry.

“What’s going on?”

I whispered as I glanced at Bailey who was the nearest.

Amber scoffed and took a step forward. “Since you came into his life you’ve ruined everything for him!”

My brows furrowed as I looked around the scene she was making. It wasn’t a busy day, but it was a decent day. We had a decent amount of customers. She was disrupting everyone’s peace and distracting them from what they were doing. I felt embarrassed that this was even happening.

This is what I considered one of my worst nightmares.

I looked at her anxiously. “What are you on about now?”

I whispered, trying to find a way to defuse this fire that was in her. We could easily take this to my office, but she was fuming, she wouldn’t follow me there.

“Callum!”

she snapped, “you ruined him! He’s not eating well, sleeping well, you’ve taken his house while he crashes in his office.”

“What are you talking about?”

I took a step forward, “how do you know all of this?”

“Why don’t you tell the truth for once in your life, huh? Stop being a conniving bitch and just fess up!”

She sneered, “go on, tell everyone!” Her eyes darkened, “the baby’s his.”

My brows furrowed as I carefully chose my words. “Amber, what are you doing?”

The palm of her hand met my cheek before I could even react.

Amber had slapped me.

It was so sudden and unexpected I was stunned, taken aback, shaking in anger and shock with a hand over my cheek.

Immediately, Val jumped in the middle of us and pushed Amber back to shield me from her.

“You’ve ruined his life!”

she screamed. “How could you be so shameless about it—”

I pushed Val to the side and cut the words out of her mouth with a harsh slap. I released a heavy breath as I flexed my hand as I felt the stinging that came after. I backed up again and Val got in front of me, chuckling proudly.

I always knew she was in love with Cal or something. I just never thought she’d take it this far even though she’d been the mole spying on me since day one reporting back to Christian. I looked past that because Christian was no longer in my life and confronting her about it was practically pointless. She was obviously doing all that out of jealousy. And now, she just took it a step further. I couldn’t sit back and let it slide.

“Get her out of my shop!”

“How dare you!”

she screamed like she had any right to say anything. Val pushed her out and Ava grabbed my arm, dragging me back to my office while Bailey apologized for the commotion.

Ava talked me out of closing down the shop early and heading home. I have no idea what I would do without her.

I parked outside of Callum’s office. I had to go in, for Clay’s sake I had to go in. I pushed the whole event that happened in my shop today in the back of my mind and just faced my current fear.

Seeing Callum.

I got out of the car and closed the door behind me. When I entered the building, it was quiet inside, and it reminded me about the last time I was here. Everyone is all busy looking at paperwork, drawing up things and typing on their computer. Crystal was the only one who noticed me or maybe at least recognized me.

After greeting me she just said to follow her into Cal’s office but instead of announcing me she was in here for different reasons.

“Nate is asking for a confirmation for the hockey game next weekend,”

Crystal said.

Cal raised his head. “I could blow off some steam.”

“Okay, I’ll tell him it’s yes from you,”

Crystal said as she buried her head into her phone typing away as she closed the door behind her.

“Well, hi,”

I muttered.

Cal looked up at me with a soft half-smile, “hi, Julie.”

He grabbed Clay’s little hand and did a little wave, “say hi Mama.”

I smiled as I fixed the strap of my purse over my shoulder.

“Hi baby!”

I whispered.

“You can come to the game if you’d like…You know for Clay’s sake, we have a lot of catching up to do,”

he said like he hadn’t been with Clay since the day he was born.

I nodded anyway. “Yeah, we’ll be there, won’t we, babba?”

I playfully smiled at Clay. He laughed as he curled his little hands into fists.

Callum smiled as he kissed Clay’s head before handing him to me.

I smiled as I finally held Clay, but then I looked at Callum and I looked around his office. He’s obviously been poorly eating and sleeping.

“Callum,”

I softened, hopefully to make a plea with him, “come back home.”

He scoffed as he smiled. “I can’t,”

he pushed his hair back with a sigh, “I won’t last five minutes being mad at you if I go back home with you, and I can’t do that right now. If I forgive you now for lying to me, we’ll never truly get past this. And I don’t want to start anything on that kind of foundation, Juliette,” he continued, “when I come back home to you, it’ll be real. We’ll officially become a family, and I don’t want this to jeopardize us in the future.”

Hearing him talk about us like this only made me feel ever more guilty than before. I bit my lips as my brows furrowed, trying to stop myself from crying because I had no right to cry in front of him about my fuck up.

“Well at least eat, and um,”

I looked around the room again, “stay at a hotel. To be more comfortable.”

“I’m well off here, I was behind on paperwork anyways.”

I sighed in defeat. “You can at least stop by the Barn. Ben-Ben would love nothing more than to make you a sandwich and I could fix you a cup of coffee before you head to work—or before you come back to work.”

He nodded. “Thank you.”

I just knew he wouldn’t take me up on that offer.

“I could actually leave with all your dirty clothes and bring them back tomorrow—”

“Juliette,”

he chuckled, “I’m fine, it’s all fine, go home. Florence will be there soon. If anything is wrong, give me a call.”

I nodded. “Okay,”

I muttered, “bye.”

My voice was quiet and probably sad, but I grabbed Clay’s bag off the coffee table and headed for the doors only to stop when I twisted the doorknob.

I turned and glanced at Cal over my shoulder. “Have you talked to Ardley yet?”

“No,”

he firmly replied.

“Has he called?”

“Good night, Juliette.”

I sighed as I walked out of the room.

Florence was already at the house waiting for Clay by the time I got home. She took him for me while I made myself a quick dinner, and after eating I cleaned up and took a shower.

The house felt so empty with Callum, even his fostered animals noticed his absence.

I used to see him in every corner in this house, I wasn’t used to this. It felt like I was living in a ghost town. But then I noticed it, my very excuse to bring him back home, even for a couple minutes, or couple hours. That would do. As I finished up my skin care routine, one of the bulbs from the vanity lights in the bathroom went out and I quickly ran and grabbed my phone and took a photo, sending the picture to Callum.

Me: one of the bathroom lights is out.

I bit my nails as I watched the screen switch from send to read, then the little typing bubbles popped up.

Cal: I’ll fix it when I get back.

I scratched the back of my neck as I paced my room, contemplating whether or not to ask when he would be coming back. Weeks from now? Months from now? Hopefully days. A couple hours was my preferred option.

I finally replied back.

Me: Okay. Goodnight.

From all the overthinking I’d been doing, I needed something before heading to bed. I was counting on my green grapes but we were fresh out of those too. I took out the empty box, cursing myself under my breath for doing such a ludicrous thing.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and took a photo of the empty box of green grapes and sent it to Callum.

Me: hey, it’s me, sorry I’m out of green grapes, I have no idea where you get these from.

I stalked my screen as I opened the fridge, placing the empty packaging back into the fridge, then sighed as I realized what I just did. I pulled out the empty box out of the fridge and tossed it in the trash, still waiting for Cal to reply back.

My phone pinged and I immediately swiped up to look at his reply.

Cal: I’ll get you some more soon.

I deflated.

This was so not how I thought this would go. I thought we’d spark a conversation and he’d be back home tonight with a fresh box of grapes.

I sighed as I typed back, still fighting my urge to ask the specifics about his time frame.

Me: okay, thank you. Good night.

I dropped into bed with a long, hard sigh. I laid back and pulled a pillow into my arms. Reluctantly I reached for the TV remote that was on the nightstand that felt very, very far away from me. I started thinking about Callum. He was all alone in that office right now. He probably didn’t eat anything—hell, he probably didn’t even take a shower. It didn’t seem fair of me to be at home, his home of all places. I ate dinner, took a shower, kissed Clay goodnight all while Callum struggled to fit his tall frame onto that tiny uncomfortable couch in his office.

I sighed as I turned on the TV. I bit my lips as I thought of something else. I peeled myself off the bed and walked up to the TV and clicked the menu until I switched the TV input from HDMI-1 to HDMI-4 then the screen went completely back.

“Yes!”

I smiled as I pulled out my phone and took a photo of TV screen and sent it to Callum.

Me: me again. What’s up with the TV?

I sat on the edge of the bed as I crossed my legs and started shaking it, waiting for his reply.

I supposed he wouldn’t come home for this, but we would at least have a lengthy conversation trying to find a way to fix it if I played dumb.

My screen lit up with his reply.

Cal: There’s an iPad in my office. The password is your birthday, use it if you need to. Download any streaming app you want. My card is already filled in on that iPad so you can get as many subscriptions as you need. The password is your name and birthday. Capital letters.

I groaned loudly as I dropped back in bed and kicked and screamed.

I couldn’t believe this.

Three for three.

I just didn’t want him to be alone right now.

I sighed as I grabbed my phone.

Me: thank you. Good night.